I’m the type of guy who adores minimalism. I’ll take big open spaces over clutter any day of the week, I usually think that the best type of art object is no art object at all, and I tend to avoid over-complication. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that Stephen Turner, the designer of Exbury Egg, shares my love of simplicity and minimalism. Continue reading…

I’m spending a few weeks in the land of dumplings, absurdly long walls, and delicious tea. China is also famous for the ancient art of Feng Shui, which advises homeowners on how to arrange furniture and build houses in order to achieve harmony. Naturally, Feng Shui practitioners have a lot to say about swimming pools, aquariums, ponds and other pieces of aquatic architecture because they interact with the water element so strongly. If you want to bring the ancient art of Feng Shui into your home, then follow these basic guidelines should set you off on the right track. Continue reading…

Yep. That’s pretty weird, but it’s what you’d expect from a children’s cartoon. I always thought it was strange that SpongeBob lived in a pineapple, of all things. Why would he live in something that’s from dry land when he’s at the bottom of the ocean?

Image source: Trendir.com

Who knows — maybe he’s onto something. Under that logic, maybe we humans should try building homes out of things from the bottom of the ocean. I can’t attest as to whether or not SpongeBob SquarePants was the inspiration, but that’s exactly what Javier Senosiain of Arquitectura Organica did with his Nautilus House.

The house mimics the flowing shapes of the nautilus, with its inward spiral and white-brown color scheme. The designers created these odd shapes with a technique called ferrocement constructio. The builders used steel-reinforced chicken wire to create the desired shape, and then they covered the wire in a two-inch-thick layer of concrete. Whammo blammo — concrete walls in whatever shape you want. Walls made this technique have the added benefits of being maintenance-free and earthquake-proof — a handy feature considering that the home is built in Mexico City.

Image source: Trendir.com

The description on the website reads (after being filtered through Google Translate), “When entering from the outside, go up a staircase and into the Nautilus passed through a large stained glass window. There is generated a spatial experience living a journey sequence, wherein neither the walls or floor or ceiling are parallel. It is a three-dimensional fluid space where you can feel the continuous dynamic of the fourth dimension, spiral walking on the steps, with the sensation of floating on vegetation.”

Image source: Arquitecturaorganica.com

Floating on vegetation? Is that a terrible mistranslation? Nope — once inside, you’ll find a series of stone pathways flanked by a grass carpet. Skylights dot the home to provide all of the natural light that the inhabitants and the carpet could ever need. Altogether, it gives the home a beautifully organic feel. You’re living inside of a massive shell, the floor itself is alive, and you can eschew electronic lights in favor of natural sunlight. Even the furniture replicates the curving shapes of biological organisms!

Image source: Arquitecturaorganica.com

Hopefully, the Nautilus House will show you just how flexible aquatic architecture can truly be. There are many different ways to bring the beauty of an ocean or a lake into your home. You could do it with a waterfall, an aquarium, a pond, or simply by designing a home that replicates the shapes of the deep blue sea.

In case you haven’t already heard (which seems unlikely, considering all of the press it got) Japan won the bid to host the Olympic Games in 2020. Obviously, Japan has some pretty big shoes to fill. Beijing set the bar with their iconic Beijing Water Cube, the gorgeous Bird’s Nest Stadium, and an opening ceremony that likely won’t be topped anytime soon. London’s display was pretty impressive, but it was a far cry from the architectural marvels in Beijing. Will Japan be able to one-up its neighbor to the west? Continue reading…

Mermaids have captured the imaginations of sailors for centuries. Unfortunately, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced a little while ago that mermaids aren’t real, so it doesn’t seem very likely that you’ll cross paths with a fish-tailed maiden anytime soon. But does that mean that you’ll never look out across the ocean and see the beautiful, graceful curves of a mermaid? Continue reading…

Yes, I should have told you to sit down before dropping that news, but it is true. In Fort Worth, you have three months of average highs in the mid-90s, and five months of at least the mid-80s. And that’s just average- it obviously can get a lot warmer, and “cooler than 97″ is still very hot. So, in order to make unbearable heat, while, bearable, cities have used water-based architecture and monuments to cool their citizens down. The Fort Worth Water Gardens are one of the prime examples of this.

It isn’t very often that people talk about golf courses as a way to help with some of the world’s most pressing water issues. Most of the time, they are criticized for using an enormous amount of water, particularly, in America, in western states like Arizona or Nevada which are beginning to experience the low thrum of an upcoming crisis. But, in the Maldive Islands, where the issue is not too little water, but the threat of too much, amazing floating island golf courses might be an answer to their desperation.

It is obvious that the Netherlands have a slight problem with water. Heck, we talked about it on Monday- the country risks massive floods in the coming decades, and their architects and engineers are trying to figure out how to cope with it. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t appreciate the power and beauty of water. Indeed, people who deal with the sea tend to have more of a respect and love for it than the landlocked. A Dutch coastal villa shows just how much beauty can be extracted from nature, put into a gorgeous man-made setting.

The Louvre in France is one of the most distinctive and well-known buildings in the world, both for the jaw-dropping, breath-taking collection of art inside its walls, and for the walls itself. A 13th century palace, the Louvre is a masterpiece of classic architecture, with its sprawling and elegant length pushed hard against the graceful banks of the Seine, the museum is as much an attraction as the Mona Lisa. It is both a testament to an a reflection of the long history of France- like Paris itself, it has stood the test of time, and contains multitudes of centuries inside its hallowed walls. Continue reading…

The Netherlands are famous for several things, including their famous walls, which every once in a great while little Dutch boys have to stick their fingers in to prevent flooding. Or so the story goes. The reason for these walls is because the Netherlands is a country- like Bangladesh- that is essentially at sea level. Throughout the centuries, the Dutch have struggled, sometimes successfully, sometimes not, to contain the sea. They have even begun a series of controlled floods. The problem is only going to get worse with global climate change, which will raise sea levels worldwide.